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Sophia Bush Speaks of Heartbreak as Ex-Boyfriend Is First American Confirmed Dead in Nepal Earthquake

The death toll has risen to more than 1,300 in Nepal after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake destroyed the capital of Katmandu early Saturday, according to the New York Times.

The earthquake led to at least 34 deaths in northern India, as well as at least 10 deaths on Mount Everest in subsequent avalanches triggered by the quake, according to the newspaper. At least one American was confirmed to be among those killed at the Earth’s highest mountain.

Dan Fredinburg, a Google executive in California, had spent the last three weeks scaling the daunting mountain before succumbing to the avalanche on Saturday, according to NBC News.

Fredinburg’s death was announced by the expedition team he was traveling with, U.K.-based Jagged Edge, via their website.

“It is with the greatest sorrow that we report the death of one of our Everest team members, Daniel Fredinburg. Two other team members have non-life threatening injuries, as a result of the avalanche that struck base camp during the earthquake and its aftershocks,” the post reads.

The quake, which hit around 1:56 a.m. ET, generated at least 15 aftershocks and triggered the avalanches on Everest.

Fredinburg served as head of privacy for Google’s innovation lab, Google[X], and graduated from the University of California, Irvine, according to NBC News.

Fredinburg had previously survived an avalanche on Everest in April 2014, while dating actress Sophia Bush.

The Chicago P.D. star, who split from Fredinburg in February 2014, took to social media to express her devastation at his passing.

“There are no adequate words,” Bush wrote on Instagram. “Today I find myself attempting to pick up the pieces of my heart that have broken into such tiny shards, I’ll likely never find them all. Today I, and so many of my loved ones, lost an incredible friend.”

Alongside a photo of Fredinburg, the actress continued “Disasters like this are often unquantifiable, the enormity is too much to understand. Please remember that each person who is now gone was someone’s Dan.”

Fredinburg died of a head wound, according to a statement his sister Megan shared on Instagram.

Before he passed away, Fredinburg had been avidly documenting his journey through Nepal and up Everest with his crew.

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